Compassion-O-Matic

Curious how much the news influences you? Compassion-O-Matic shows how the Europe crisis looks when "migrant" becomes "refugee".See the European refugee crisis without the doublespeak. Compassion-O-Matic converts "migrant" to "refugee" on almost all news articles and most other websites. Whatever your political views towards recent events, you might be surprised by how different the discussion feels. Try it, and see for yourself.

WHY WAS THIS MADE?
The words we choose to use are important. They colour our interpretation of events, whether we notice or not. We should not be using the dismissive and dehumanising term "migrant" when, as the UNHCR's 1951 Refugee Convention says, "A migrant chooses to leave, whereas a refugee is forced to leave." "Migrant" rhetoric does not reflect the reality on the ground. This extension began life as a gimmick to make a point, but quickly became more serious when its effect turned out to be unexpectedly powerful.

MOTIVATED TO HELP?
A great list of (mostly UK-centric) ideas, from petitions to donating bin liners, can be found at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/5-practical-ways-you-can-help-refugees-trying-to-find-safety-in-europe-10482902.html.

WHY DOES IT NEED THOSE PERMISSIONS?
This extension has to read the pages you open in order to replace words on them. No data is ever transmitted. The full source code is available at https://github.com/pdavies/compassion-o-matic.

(Compassion-O-Matic is not in any way affiliated with The Independent or BBC News.)